


Knowing that, he slept soundly.

by ironicallyinternational



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, davekat - Freeform, minor scourge, that one upd8 scene with the couch, yeah u know the one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 02:17:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3833293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ironicallyinternational/pseuds/ironicallyinternational
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(the couch scene: before and after)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Knowing that, he slept soundly.

**Author's Note:**

> ITS CANON GOD BLESS  
> prompt: "plEASE write the couch scene from the upd8 please im screaming"  
> im like...ok haha yeah let me write 8 pages for that

Watching movies really wasn’t a momentous occasion anymore, Karkat thought. By watching movies, of course, he meant watching movies with Dave, because nearly everything was done with Dave these days. On screen, the rom-com was continuing like always, the actor turning a sultry glance in their direction. Dave, as usual, had not-so-discreetly passed out by this point. Try as he may, Karkat didn’t think Dave would ever be able to stay awake for an entire rom-com. Still, he tried. 

Here, Karkat had to take a moment to recompose himself, because as embarassingly often as it happened, he did not, in fact, enjoy Vriska and Terezi finding him grinning stupidly with Dave nearby. Ah, yes. Tha was something too, the Vriska-and-Terezi they had once again become.   
The first part of the trip was awkward, due to Gamzee’s imprisoned state and the general dislike and suspicion concentrated upon both the juggalo and the spider 8itch herself. Sure, she’d been punched in the face by god-damn John Egbert (no, Karkat was never going to get over that), but that didn’t change the fact she’d been about to go on a mission that would have ended in their deaths, nor the fact that she had, you know, MURDERED TAVROS. 

And then there were the humans, with their weird, hornless appearance and blunt teeth and strange accent and overall alien-ness, trying to adapt to their circumstances too. Them being stuck together for three years didn’t change the fact that a) the two other humans plus the weird bird Dave were stuck somewhere else with no contact b) there were two murderous psychopaths on board (well, three if you counted Kanaya) and c) like, half of the people they knew were dead. Awkward didn’t really cover it.

Still, if you took in account the fact that they were all teenagers, he supposed you should thank the fact it didn’t take them, like, the entire voyage to start getting more comfortable around each other. Rose and Kanaya had been the first to hit it off; tentative friendship growing into the most hellish all-knowing sister combo Karkat could have ever been faced with. The two were practically glued by the hip (and other places, as Dave snidely remarked), a constant flow of inside jokes and giggles combined with disgustingly mature inter-cultural discussions and a particular obsession with quadrants Karkat was never going to let go.

Here’s where he’d been glad Vriska wasn’t dead, honestly, because he feared the two might have gotten a little too codependent if it weren’t for her tactless pursuit of either of them. (Maybe Rose, maybe Kanaya- sue Karkat if he didn’t think a relationship with Serket was the most desirable thing.) In fact, Vriska’s main use this trip had probably been her cock-blocking, Karkat mused, highly entertained by the notion. After all, she’d also been of use when Gamzee had started emerging from the shadows to try (and fail) at black-romming her- although Karkat was perfectly aware that Terezi was able of taking care of herself (and also kicking everyone on the team’s ass), it had been very satisfying watching the two team up to pester the juggalo.

Yeah, no, Karkat was definitely going to share his thoughts on Vriska’s use when he next saw her, even though he didn’t really actively seek her out, both from a justified dislike and from a constant fear of finding her making out with Terezi. It hadn’t happened yet, but yet was the key word- by this point, he thought Rose and Kanaya were doing it on purpose everytime he walked into a room. 

Terezi…Karkat-and-Terezi had been a very uncomfortable thing for a while, too. Karkat still winced when he thought of his pre-meteor self. Well, he also winced when he thought of any of his past selves, but he winced much harder for that one. He and Terezi had both been brats, but he’d been trying to, what, control her life? He didn’t know. He’d been even more of a selfish prat then than now, for sure, so he was eternally grateful that he and Terezi had managed to sort it out. And ok, three years later, he was happy it had worked out this way- even though Vriska-and-Terezi were inseparable, he and Terezi were, well. Friends. Best friends, even. Which, as he’d mentioned a few nights ago, was honestly much better than any other outcome.

(“Whaaaaaaaat?” Vriska had asked, sticking her head through the door in mock surprise. “You mean you don’t think it would have been better   
if you could have gotten your sad little crush to work out?”

Terezi had snickered, but she’d also thrown a shoe (where the hell she’d found it, Karkat didn’t know) at Vriska that had hit her in the shoulder, so Karkat had been quite satisfied.

“Wow, Serket. Nice eaves-dropping skills. Are you scared your matesprit is going to confess she thinks you’re a nook-sniffing imbecile?”

Vriska had flushed and Terezi had cackled.

Karkat had to admit he was very pleased with himself for having realized that no matter the terrible insult, calling the two matesprits would inevitably result in Vriska turning a rather vibrant shade of blue. (Take that, Serket. Your insecurities about anything tender concerning Terezi Pyrope can’t always be used as a weapon against other people.)

When she’d retreated, scowling and flipping the bird at him, Terezi had quietened and shot him a sharp smile that was almost friendly around the edges, eyes aiming a little too much to the left as usual.

“I am really glad we’re friends, though, Karkat. You don’t suck too much at all.”

Karkat had blushed, annoyingly, and scowled faintly. “You only want me for my nice hair.”

Terezi had laughed again, and ruffled his hair a bit too hard to try and cover her fondness. “Don’t forget the smell, Karkles! It’s the smell that does it!”

Dave, upon walking in, had merely raised an unimpressed brow. (How he did that with shades on was questionable, but Karkat had never managed to figure it out). Terezi, sprawled over Karkat and grabbing his hair wildly, had laughed until she was crumpled on the floor, as Karkat sputtered and tried to free himself from her clutches.

“I’m not even going to bother saying that this isn’t what it looks like.” was all he could tiredly manage.

“Well, now I’m disappointed.” Dave had replied, dead-pan, mouth twitching ever so slightly.)

Yeah, all in all, everything had gone much better than it could have. But with Kanaya-and-Rose and Vriska-and-Terezi, Karkat’s options for actually hanging out with people had been Dave or Gamzee. Taking a wild guess, it would be safe to say there wasn’t much of a choice to be made.   
It had been in silent and mutual agreement that the two had ended up vaguely hanging out. And, OK, maybe hanging out was more of a ‘deliberately antagonizing each other’ thing, especially at the start, but their conversations had gone from raging on Karkat’s side and sneering on Dave’s to realizing that their bickering was actually kind of fun pretty fast.

Terezi had been the main worry, but it had been settled quickly that they were all three better off as friends, so with that out of the way…

(“You look disturbed, Dave.” Rose had said, when Karkat had accidentally kind of on purpose eaves-dropped on them one night.

“I’m not.” Dave had replied, frown clear even in his voice.

“Have you finally realized there’s no real reason for you to dislike our impassioned leader?” Rose had continued, faintly amused as always. It had been there that the eaves-dropping stopped being an accident.

“Oh, for god’s sake, Lalonde! Just because you’re having fun slobbering all over some hot alien doesn’t mean you have to set me up with their alien pseudo-sibling to complete the weird incest circle of stupidity or whatever you’re trying to achieve here.” Dave had complained, sounding exasperated.

“I was going to suggest you two becoming friends, but it seems you’re a step ahead as always, dear brother.” Rose had said lightly, to which Dave had screeched and thrown something heavy in her general direction. Karkat had chosen that moment to scurry away.)

So it turned out that although Dave was an incredibly annoying insipid nookstain of an alien, he was actually pretty bearable. And by that Karkat meant that they’d somehow ended up practically inseparable. 

Not, of course, like the girls- there was neither the disgustingly sweet Kanaya-and-Rose thing nor Vriska’s falling over her feet to try and please Terezi. Dave and Karkat bickered a lot, unsuprisingly, about extremely stupid things (according to everyone else, this was equally unsuprising). Not that Karkat minded- he was almost always in the mood for arguing, and if there was someone to pointlessly argue right back until the agrument dissolved, then sue him for not complaining. 

Their fighting unfailingly either ended up in them sparring or them giggling about some stupid thing or another.

The sparring came as a surprise when it started, but Karkat had to admit he liked it.

(“I should kick your ass.” He’d snapped, annoying little twerp that he was.

“I’d like to see you try.” Dave Strider, all impassive smirk and unapproachable tone.

“Maybe I will!” 

That had earned him a pause. 

Then Dave had grinned ever so slightly. “Sure. One on one.”)

Dave had won, the first time, but suprisingly not by that much.

(It started when Karkat lunged forwards as Dave flash-stepped around him, and then turned into a rapid series of blows he barely managed to stop with his sickles. Dave was really unfairly fast. 

And then, just when Dave had been about to knock him over, Karkat had realized that his advantage was that Karkat’s fighting experience came from fighting for his life. He fought dirty. 

He’d kicked out blindly, and Dave had stumbled, and then he’d slammed his sickles down on Dave’s sword so hard he nearly dropped it.

Thinking back, Karkat could still feel the exhilarated spurt of triumph coursing through him when he’d caught sight of Dave’s startled expression, cheeks red from effort and hair messy, wide eyes watching him in surprise.

When it was over, as they lay breathing heavily, Dave had coughed, semi-nonchalantly: “Not bad, Vantas. Next time I’ll kick your ass hard.”

Karkat had stilled, the careful ‘next time’ very clear, and then, just as nonchalantly: “Maybe next time I’ll let you try.”)

Anyway, point was- he and Dave were, well. Best friends, for one. Honestly, Karkat couldn’t remember being this close to anyone- Terezi, perhaps, at one point, or Kanaya, but it hadn’t been in this way, this thing that had grown into a progressively bigger deal, until Dave was suddenly a huge, vital part of his life and Karkat refused to imagine it without him.

All in all, then, movie nights were hardly suprising. What was suprising, however, was Dave’s current position on the sofa.

Neither Dave nor Karkat were very touchy-feely, for various reasons. Karkat was still paranoid, some part of him forever terrified of exposure and swift culling, another just too cautious and mistrustful to let just anyone casually get into his personal space. Dave, on the other hand, got jumpy at a mere touch, always thinking back to a childhood full of weird manipulations and the constant smackdown at the hands of a much older and stronger brother.

And yet, here they were. These days, Karkat felt like he couldn’t keep himself to himself- couldn’t stop his head from propping up on Dave’s shoulder, his knee from knocking against Dave’s, his back from resting against Dave’s leg- and his hands, treacherous as they were, from constantly seeking out the other Knight like some foolish love-struck rom-com character. It was really, really embarrassing, to be quite honest, but on the other hand it’s not like Dave wasn’t doing the same, so hey.

Still, some things were out of bounds- Karkat wasn’t going to, say, hug Dave out of the blue, or hold his hand or something equally indiscrete. It was already hard enough to tiptoe around the whole ‘hey best friend of mine should we maybe talk about the fact that we’re kind of human dating and i’m trying to be in denial about the whole super romantic feelings thing so uh’ issue without needlessly reckless moves like that. Not to mention the fact that both of their ‘sisters’ and the actual scourge sisters weren’t exactly helping, with their eyebrow wiggling and smirks and ‘Phrasing, Dave’s thrown around like a field full of dangerous, discussion-causing landmines. 

An excessively long detour for his mind to make, perhaps, but in fact this entire internal analysis of their friendship status had only been made to stop Karkat from freaking out, because Dave had apparently decided to subconciously do an acrobatic pirouette over any respectable barriers they’d carefully put in place and fall asleep on Karkat. And not just on Karkat, no, Dave was practically sleeping on his lap. Or in it. In his lap? On his lap? Karkat couldn’t really remember, but it felt like in would be more accurate because Dave’s head was resting on his thigh and he was curled up next to him- did he mention Dave? Lap? Freaking out?

To be fair, it wasn’t the ‘AAAAAAGGHHHHH WHAT IS GOING ON’ type of freaking out that Karkat usually indulged in, but rather a quiet, ‘pulling a face at the comatose Strider for leaving me with the repercussions of his reckless acts of affection’ type. But still- it was up to Karkat to do something, even if Dave wasn’t conscious of it. On screen, Dane Cook seductively spared them a glance, his weird human face resting in quiet approval.

Karkat, quietly and firmly, in a tiny movement that felt like one of the most important decisions in his very eventful life, tugged his arm out from behind Dave and carefully rested it on his shoulder. For a moment, his blood-pusher beating like crazy and his mouth suddenly dry, he waited. Dave shifted, turning ever so slightly and nearly causing Karkat to have a heart attack, then simply exhaled lightly and buried his head more deeply somewhere in Karkat’ sweater.

‘Yessssssssssssss,’ hissed the triumphant voices at the back of Karkat’s head, sounding suspiciously like Terezi. And Kanaya. That was disturbing. “Goooooooood. You must get close enough to absorb the human, and turn into one fused being of pure and disgusting sentiment. Cuddle it until it DIES!” 

Karkat, pinching his nose with his free hand, sighed. TV Dane Cook was now walking down a lonely street. He shook his head to get rid of the crazy cheerleading squad, melted further into the couch, and turned his attention back to the screen, utterly failing at trying to keep the horribly fond expression he could practically feel on his face away.

Well, now. This wasn’t so bad. 

\--

“Oh, my everloving mother grub. I might die.” Terezi hissed. Vriska, stopping abruptly, turned around to see her standing still in front of Karkat’s room, which Vriska had walked by without even pausing.

“What is it now? Are you creeping on Vantas again?” She asked, repressing the urge to drag Terezi away. Sure, she and Karkat were friends now, and Vriska had been partially forgiven, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t kind of jealous of the annoying Cancer. Uh, jealous? Had she though ‘jealous’? Yeah, no, that was not what she meant. She wasn’t jealous in any way, because she didn’t care what was up with Terezi’s quadrants.

“Shhhhhhhh!” Terezi hissed, interrupting her internal monologue and jabbing her in the chest rather aggressively.

OK, now Vriska was curious. “What?” she whispered, trying to move towards the room without Terezi’s nail stabbing her in the chest.

“Can’t you smell it?” Terezi grinned, letting her hand drop.

“What the hell, Pyrope, does it look like I can sniff out whatever’s up with Karkat? Is it Gamzee? Are they pailing? Because I really don’t want to see that.” Vriska said, moving up regardless to where Terezi stood. Karkat’s room was kind of dark- Vriska wasn’t really sure what Terezi had smelled, because all she could see was faint light from the TV or whatever, casting a gleam of white on- wait.

“Oh, my actual- is that- holy crap.” Particular emphasis was placed on the last word, as Vriska stared in disbelief at the two sleeping forms she could now distinguish on the couch. OK, wow. She and Terezi had witnessed some pretty dumb things concerning Dave and Karkat, and she’d kind of figured out Terezi was trying to hook them up, but really? She had to admit she’d not seen this one coming. 

She voiced the last part out loud, still staring at the two Knights. Dave and Karkat were both fast asleep, Karkat passed out on the couch with Dave basically lying on him, their legs tangled and Dave’s cape covering them both in a horrendously sappy moment even out rom-comming the rom-com they’d definitely been watching.

Terezi made a weird noise, and Vriska turned her surprised eyes away from the two (that was disgustingly cute, she was not cool with feeling this soft) to stare at her instead.

OK, so that was a bad move.

Terezi, still looking at Dave and Karkat, was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet, hands clutched together and huge grin firmly in place, like some stupid grub that just got presented with its favourite meal. To make matters worse, she was almost giggling to herself in bizarre happiness, creepiness down to nil and cuteness so high it was like she’d drunk fifty litres of Faygo.

Oh, hey. Something else was disgustingly cute.

Terezi was going to have to reserve her triumph for later, because right now Vriska was going to kidnap her and keep her forever.

\---

Dave was probably the most comfortable he’d been in his entire life. Was it possible to ever be more comfortable? He thought not. He also thought he might physically melt into whatever heavenly pillow he was currently resting on, though, so maybe he shouldn’t quite trust his horribly sleepy brain’s decisions right now.

OK. He was a little more awake now. So. He was currently waking up, after the best night of sleep he’d had in a while (months, maybe), on top of something really c-OH GOD THAT WAS KARKAT’S SWEATER ABORT ABORT

It took all his will-power to not actually jump up and scream.

Instead, he seized up like he was a plank of wood, inhaled deeply through his nose and nearly choked to death because of his weird attempt at breathing.

When he’d stopped wheezing, eyes watering, he lifted his head slightly to assess the situation. Right. So his head was resting on his arms, that were resting on Karkat’s stomach, and his legs were somewhere between Karkat’s. And YEAH WOW WAS KARKAT’S HAND ON HIS BACK OK IT WAS WOAH YEAAAH OK THAT’S COOL HE WAS NOT FREAKING OUT

Karkat stirred and Dave died a little on the inside.

Mumbling something unintelligible, however, the troll just shifted a little and pulled Dave to him more tightly.

Right. Now Dave was actually dead. Lord in heaven, please collect his soul and throw him into the depths of hell. His heart was going to stop beating from way too much activity, and it was going to be a heroic death solely because Dave hadn’t cracked and started crying or crushing Karkat to him yet. His face felt like it was on fire- was it normal to be this warm? LOHAC wasn’t even this warm. He was going to die.

Peeking up at Karkat’s face didn’t help at all, because Karkat looked adorable when he was sleeping. 

He was so gone, holy shit.

OK, Strider. Sit up. Run away. Far away. Hide from those bad feeling things. Good plan.

Slowly, gingerly, Dave hoisted himself up slightly, then leaned back so he was on his knees, hanging over Karkat’s legs. OK. He could do this.

Knight of Time, back in the-

“The fuck are you doing?”

In abject horror, Dave turned towards the source of the sleepy, scratchy voice. Karkat, eyes half closed and hair mussed, was fixing him with the drowsiest stare possible.

“Uh. Basically I woke up and was all like ‘yo, I fell asleep on my bro, man I should probably just move and go chill in my room like the chillest dude to ever chill to make sure I didn’t make things awkward for my bro, seeing as the dude’s way asleep’, you know, so being the awesome rad dude that I am, I was just about to do an acrobatic pirouette out of the room like Troll Will Smith in that one scene where he’s being chased by-“

So maybe by the looks of it his slightly panicked babbling wasn’t working wonders on Karkat.

“…I was trying to leave? Uh, I don’t really know how to put this, but I was pretty much-”

He stopped talking again when Karkat pushed himself up with great effort, finally managing to be more or less sitting upright, his face horribly close to Dave’s.

“Strider.” 

“Yes?” Dave absolutely didn’t yelp, gulping a bit too obviously.

In a flash, Karkat had reached out and thrown himself back on the couch, dragging Dave down with him.

Dave, taken by surprise, lay there in stunned silence.

“Shut your trap and go to sleep.” Karkat said extremely pleasantly, releasing Dave only to flip them over so they were basically spooning.

Dave, finding himself with a faceful of Karkat’s hair and a semi passed out troll pressed up against him, felt his own eyelids droop.

“Yeah, OK. Sure. Can do, captain.”

Forget Rose and Terezi, John and Jade were never going to let him live it down when they saw him again.

The next time he woke up, his head was in Karkat’s lap again, and Karkat was chewing on some toast while sighing soulfully at something Troll Darcy was saying on-screen, so Dave figured he didn’t need to run anywhere.

“Troll Colin Firth is as good as ever, huh?”

“Shhhh, listen!” Karkat hissed, eyes wide and sparkling anime-style in anticipation.

Well, Dave thought, hiding his suddenly scarlet face, at least his current position meant he didn’t actually have to try and deny he had a huge crush on the guy.

(If Rose later pointed out that having your face in someone’s lap wasn’t that great of a way to hide your prominent crush on them, well, she thought she’d been subtle by asking Kanaya to read her books about quadrants, so she didn’t get to talk shit.)

\--

**Author's Note:**

> dude.
> 
> (hit me up on quidfree @ tumblr or review and i will write u all the davekats. all of them.)


End file.
